Poppies: A Memorial Day Tribute

The setting is simple: a windswept, small-town park in the midst of farm fields. Thunder rumbles, almost like distant artillery, as a small group of people gathers to commemorate the fallen soldiers. It is Memorial Day.

The small town is Prairie City, Illinois, which has sent soldiers off to battle since at least the Civil War.

So many wars, so many dead, so many wounded. A knot of perhaps 50 people gathers to hear the speeches and music, to mourn the fallen, and to be quietly happy for those who survived.

Such reverent ceremonies are held in hundreds, perhaps thousands of rural and urban communities across the country, reminders that nationhood and its freedoms are costly.

These wars — distant past and present — touch us deeply, whether we approve or not. War is never easy. It is always brutal. Sometimes it seems a necessity.

The survivors and noncombatants are left to mourn, remember, ponder, learn from the past, and hope for peace while we are alive. There is little else we can do for the dead, except remember them as time passes for us: